[MUSIC] Welcome to the secondnd module of our course, why business? This one is called broken windows and prices. So, what are we going to talk about in this module? First, let me recap a little bit of what we talked about in the first module. So, you recall that we talked about Adam smith and John Paul II, and that both of them argued for private property markets and a conception of honorable business. And we asked the question of whether Adam Smith's story of markets explained the increase in wealth, that we saw, that very dramatic increase in wealth that we saw since the 18th century? And I asked the question whether the growth and spread of markets almost throughout the entire world since the 18th century, has increased respect for the human dignity that John Paul II described and called for. So, the next thing we want to talk about are markets a little bit more specifically, so, how are markets exactly supposed to work? What kinds of things can or should they do? And what kinds of things can or should they not do? And what limits, if any, should we place on markets? Whether regulatory, legal or moral limits, in particular, can anything be priced in the market? Should anything be priced in the market? Or are there some things that should not be bought and sold in markets, even if there are markets for them? Those are the questions we're going to talk about in this module, we want to know how markets work. So, here are a few of the more specific questions that we're going to talk about in this and the subsequent videos. So how do markets actually work? How do they allocate goods? How do they allocate services and resources? What role specifically do prices play? Where do prices come from? What do they reflect exactly? How should we allocate our own resources? Meaning our own time, talent and treasure, what's the role of profit in a market? What's the role the role of profit seeking in both business and markets? And indeed, what's the proper role of profit and profit seeking? A little bit more generally, and maybe a little more philosophically, can markets represent all our values? So we have lots of preferences, are those the same things as values? Can markets reflect or represent or can market prices reflect or represent our moral values? And indeed do markets create values of their own? Do they induce us to have values or preferences that we otherwise wouldn't have and that the markets themselves create or encourage. So, some of the topics we're going to talk about a module two, include more specifically, the author, Frederic Bastiat. Frederic Bastiat talks about broken windows and the economic concept of opportunity cost. And we're going to turn to Friedrich Hayek, who argues for what he calls a rational economic order, and a way to achieve such an order through the price mechanism. And we're going to turn to contemporary philosopher Michael Sandel, who argues that there are many things that should not be for sale in markets. And it gives us not only examples, but reasons. So up next, let's talk about Frederic basquiat and his famous work, what is seen and what is unseen, and is now much more famous example of the broken window.
